The Cabinet on Thursday approved acquisition of State Bank of Indore by the State Bank of India and also gave its approval to introduce a Bill in the Parliament for making amendments in the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959, to eliminate the character reference of State Bank of Indore.

Following Cabinet’s approval of the merger of State Bank of Indore with the largest lender, the shares of State Bank of India fell more than 1 per cent.

On a very similar note, SBI settled at Rs 2,439.50, down 1.01 per cent on the National Stock Exchange. The broader Sensex also settled in the red, down 0.16 per cent. Other State Bank Group banks like State Bank of Mysore up
2.40 per cent, State Bank of Travancore 2.83 per cent higher, and State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur finished up 3.11 per cent.

Following the unification of State Bank of Saurashtra with SBI in 2008, the issue of attainment of the bank's other associate banks has been captivating the interest of SBI. The bank is faced with a circumstance where most of its branches and those of State Bank of Indore are contending for the same business in the same market, under the same brand. This has stopped SBI from fully exploiting its brand equity for driving business growth.  

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has determined to bring in call auction in the pre-open session in 50 index shares on the National and the Bombay stock exchanges.

The SEBI said in a circular to the stock exchanges on Thursday that “To begin with, the session shall be introduced on a pilot basis for the scrips forming part of the Sensex and the Nifty. In case of any change in the composition of Sensex and Nifty, pre-open session shall be introduced for such incoming scrips. Pre-open session shall also continue for the scips moving out of Sensex and Nifty, though they will not be reckoned for the computation of the index.”